ApolloAndy

Saturday, May 10, 2003 5:31 AM

What's wrong with the cap.? (When I went it was a two train wait). It has separate load/unload and they were beating stack about 25% of the time on two train op. (which could just be a function of slow unload), but with three trains, it seems like the load station, (guessing this is the bottleneck) isn't much slower than any other 28 passenger vehicle.

AdamFrank

Saturday, May 10, 2003 5:53 AM

There has also been mention that it is not opening on Wednesdays due to staffing and/or maintenance issues. I took it as a dumb rumor at first, however it was closed this past Wednesday but open Thursday and Friday. Take it for what it's worth.

I agree, there are issues with the capacity and probably always will be. Three train operation would be a dream on that ride, but I hear that it is next to impossible.

Tom Servo

Saturday, May 10, 2003 2:07 PM

Good to know about Wednesdays, I'll have to keep my eyes open for that and myself away from there if that turns out to be the case.

I'm shocked to hear that you had a 2 train wait, Andy, what day did you go? I've only ever seen that happen once, and the park was almost completely empty. They were still stacking up about 90% of the time though.

Capacity won't go down as long as they do the double restraint checks, and unless 4-D style restraint systems become commonplace, they'll have to keep doing that. They check/help everyone when the train first shows up, then rotate the seats, then do checks again. Because of the design, you can't just walk along one edge of the train pulling on a restraint, they have to walk in and out of each row, and all of that adds up to a lot of time waiting. I doubt it'll ever get really high capacity, and that's too bad...

thepinkdoomofmonkeys

MrSkyWhirl

Monday, May 12, 2003 6:31 AM

As I have read previous to going there, one train operation on X is simply brutal. On a day when EVERYTHING (and I do mean everything) was a virtual walk-on (including Scream!, Superman, Goliath etc), X was a solid two hour wait due to the one train operation.

When we asked one of the crew why they had the other two trains sitting in the shed, they said it was due to "lack of need" of using any more than one.

While X was awesome, I was really amazed that whomever makes such decisions would decide to keep it to a one train operation. I'm just suprised that they would aggravate guests like that (on an otherwise excellent day) to save putting another train on the tracks. X had a line ALL day....so I have no doubt there would have still been a wait ALL day.....but complaints would have been much less if that wait time would have been cut in half. With "the" train leaving the station no quicker than every 5-7 minutes, I can tell you that there were some pretty upset people that claimed they were going right to Guest Relations.

Perhaps they have a formula (based on how many people have come thru the gates) for "when" to put a second train on the tracks OR perhaps it's a lot more costly to do so....but, in either case, I just didn't get it. While the park was not packed, it was not empty either.

I'm going to assume that they put a second train on for Saturday/Sunday....or, at least I hope they do! The waits Friday were pretty long with one train, I can't imagine if they did that on a Saturday or Sunday.

kRaXLeRidAh

The Cygnus

Monday, May 12, 2003 6:50 PM

I'm kinda glad that B&M isn't gonna make a 4D. It would just lead to clones of the same 4D for every SF park in the world! And it wouldn't be a unique ride anymore. ------------------"If it's just us...seems like an awful waste of space." -Contact

danh.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 11:16 AM

No, no one knows what B&M is doing, leave the rumours to screamscape. Back on topic, i though that only 2 of the X trains had been 'retrofitted' to run without ripping themselves apart? How would they do 3 train op with only 2 trains?